Initial attempts to subdivide the offshore succession in Hong Kong waters were made from the description of sediments in boreholes. Subsequently, more exact work refined this scheme by using the results of detailed borehole analyses, the interpretation of seismic records and, more recently, the sequence stratigraphy. Making use of three instances, this paper deals with the application of high resolution single channel reflection marine seism in this field in detail. Field data acquisition and techniques for suppressing noise in shallow waters have also been discussed in brief.